How to Read & Write a Cartridge for Nintendo Advance

Nicholas WyattUpdated April 17, 2017

The GameBoy Advance is a portable gaming system that features 32 bit graphics and a sound system that has been upgraded from the original Game Boy. The GameBoy Advance was released in 2009. There are various hacks and codes for the GameBoy Advance that can run home brew games and also allow you to read and write a cartridge. The Little Writer software loads your ROM, reads it and displays the ROM data. The Little Writer software also allows you to edit the ROM information if necessary.

Purchase a Nintendo Gameboy Advance Flash Linker. Look at the resource link "GBXEMU" for some ideas on an Advance Flash Linker.

Insert your Advance Flash Linker cartridge into your GameBoy Advance.

Plug the small side of the Linker USB cable into the USB port on the side of the Game Boy Advance. Insert the other end of the USB cable into an available USB port on your computer.

Install Little Writer to your computer. Navigate to Gameboy Advance and look under "Download" for "LittleWriter Software - final v.1.8.3." Click on it to save Little Writer to your computer.

Open the program. After you install Little Writer, open the program and then minimise the Little Writer window.

Choose a game to download. Navigate to CoolRom and choose the GameBoy Advance game ROM you would like to download. Save the ROM to your computer.

Restore the Little Writer window and select the "Erase" to format the card. Select the "Flash" icon after you have formatted the card. If Little Writer does not find a card, a dialogue box will prompt you to select your Flash card. Select "128 MB Flash Card."

Select either "Multiple GBA ROMS" or "Single GBA ROMS" to load either multiple GameBoy Advance roms onto the same card or a single game write.

Open the ROM file. Select "Load" and choose the GameBoy Advance game ROM you have saved on your computer. Press "Open" to open the ROM file. Little Writer will read the GameBoy Advance ROM file. You can also view the log of data in the Little Writer ROM menu.

Select "Flash" to write the ROM you have loaded to your GameBoy Advance cartridge.